Urban Waters Federal Partnership Act of 2025
Urban Waters Federal Partnership Act of 2025 would codify and strengthen a multi-agency federal program designed to reconnect urban communities with their waterways. The bill requires the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Secretary of Agriculture to maintain the Urban Waters program through a broader, cross-agency partnership that includes numerous federal agencies. It creates a coordinating steering committee, designates local Urban Waters partnership locations with dedicated ambassadors, and authorizes funding and interagency collaboration to support projects that improve water quality, habitat, recreation, and community resiliency in urban or distressed areas. The act also establishes an Urban Waters Learning Network to share best practices and requires annual progress reporting to Congress. Funding is authorized at $10 million per year from 2026 through 2030, scalable with other federal and non-federal partners. In short, the bill aims to formalize and expand federal coordination and resources to improve water resources and related community benefits in urban areas, with an emphasis on overburdened or economically distressed communities, through designated partnership locations, local coordinators, and enhanced interagency funding and planning.
Key Points
- 1Multi-agency Urban Waters program: Establishes a formal, joint program across EPA, Interior, Agriculture, and many other federal agencies to coordinate projects that improve urban waters and related community outcomes.
- 2Steering committee: Creates an EPA-led steering committee with vice-chairs from the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture, plus senior officials from other participating agencies, to set priorities and identify funding opportunities.
- 3Partnership locations and ambassadors: Requires active partnership locations with local Urban Waters ambassadors (coordinators) and allows the creation of new partnership locations; also allows designation of certain communities as urban waters nonpartnership locations.
- 4Authorized activities and eligible entities: Authorized activities include technical assistance, project funding, ambassador support, interagency coordination, and funding transfers to carry out habitat, water quality, recreation, infrastructure, and education projects; eligible entities include states, territories, DC, tribes, local governments, colleges, nonprofits, and other appropriately approved organizations.
- 5Learning network and reporting: Establishes an Urban Waters Learning Network to share information and build capacity; requires regular progress reporting to Congress on funds used, workplan progress, and other relevant information.
- 6Funding and comparability: Authorizes $10 million per year from 2026 to 2030 to carry out the program, with the ability to use these funds in combination with funds from other federal agencies and non-federal partners.